Digging Deeper From Supporters Perspectives | Part 2

Um, we left off talking about Randy Reynolds, and I just wanna go back to this briefly.

And so what happened was, and just, uh, I probably most people listening know most of the, you know, facts, but we had a three-day evidentiary hearing last year.

We put on all our witnesses and evidence, just the things that the court determined were new, by the way, just what the court determined were new, uh, and I, and I'll ...

I wanna talk about that in a minute.

Um, and one of the persons who testified live was Randy Reynolds.

And as we mentioned last episode, Randy, uh, attended the retirement party for Bill Dummett, the LaSalle County sheriff's deputy who, uh, I contend coerced Chester's confession, and heard Dummett basically say, "Yeah," uh, they were talking about the Starve Rock murders, like, uh, "I got, I got the son of a bitch to confess, but he was innocent." Just a stunning remark.

Randy testified live at our hearing, and I found Randy to be an honest, credible guy, no dog in the fight, spoke about it very matter-of-factly.

Judge Jans in his opinion, starts at page 15, talks about Randy Reynolds.

And what he says is, this is the quote, "Chester Weger was innocent, but I got the son of a bitch to admit to it." That was May 13th, uh, court testimony.

And this is the part I really take issue with, and I, I, I just cannot ...

Words do not allow me to say this as strong as I feel.

I'm reading this from page 16 of the court's opinion.

"The court had the opportunity to observe the demeanor of Reynolds while he testified and his manner of speaking.

His answers on direct examination were more concise and confident about general and broad statements, but when questioned on cross-examination about the details, his manner of answering questions changed and he was less clear.

Reynolds testified that he was devastated when he first learned, first heard the statement from Dummett, but he also admitted that it didn't matter to him in 1982 because the Starve Rock murders didn't matter to him.

He did not contact any authorities or take any action to bring this information to light until he spoke with a family member who was interested in the investigation of the case and was able to set up an appointment to meet, for him to meet defendant's counsel in 2024.

He filled in the blank spaces on defendant's exhibit 16, but admitted he wrote in the wrong years for the retirement party.

Uh, it was established by defendant's exhibit 17 the retirement party actually took place in 1982." What did Randy write in the affidavit? Do you remember? I can't remember.

'83, '84.

Yeah.

I mean, are, are you kidding me? Randy got the, the year off by one year and the judge is-

Yeah

... calling that out like that.

That, that was like, oh, he's not credible.

That's ridiculous.

Um, we left off talking about Randy Reynolds, and I just wanna go back to this briefly.

And so what happened was, and just, uh, I probably most people listening know most of the, you know, facts, but we had a three-day evidentiary hearing last year.

We put on all our witnesses and evidence, just the things that the court determined were new, by the way, just what the court determined were new, uh, and I, and I'll ...

I wanna talk about that in a minute.

Um, and one of the persons who testified live was Randy Reynolds.

And as we mentioned last episode, Randy, uh, attended the retirement party for Bill Dummett, the LaSalle County sheriff's deputy who, uh, I contend coerced Chester's confession, and heard Dummett basically say, "Yeah," uh, they were talking about the Starve Rock murders, like, uh, "I got, I got the son of a bitch to confess, but he was innocent." Just a stunning remark.

Randy testified live at our hearing, and I found Randy to be an honest, credible guy, no dog in the fight, spoke about it very matter-of-factly.

Judge Jans in his opinion, starts at page 15, talks about Randy Reynolds.

And what he says is, this is the quote, "Chester Weger was innocent, but I got the son of a bitch to admit to it." That was May 13th, uh, court testimony.

And this is the part I really take issue with, and I, I, I just cannot ...

Words do not allow me to say this as strong as I feel.

I'm reading this from page 16 of the court's opinion.

"The court had the opportunity to observe the demeanor of Reynolds while he testified and his manner of speaking.

His answers on direct examination were more concise and confident about general and broad statements, but when questioned on cross-examination about the details, his manner of answering questions changed and he was less clear.

Reynolds testified that he was devastated when he first learned, first heard the statement from Dummett, but he also admitted that it didn't matter to him in 1982 because the Starve Rock murders didn't matter to him.

He did not contact any authorities or take any action to bring this information to light until he spoke with a family member who was interested in the investigation of the case and was able to set up an appointment to meet, for him to meet defendant's counsel in 2024.

He filled in the blank spaces on defendant's exhibit 16, but admitted he wrote in the wrong years for the retirement party.

Uh, it was established by defendant's exhibit 17 the retirement party actually took place in 1982." What did Randy write in the affidavit? Do you remember? I can't remember.

'83, '84.

Yeah.

I mean, are, are you kidding me? Randy got the, the year off by one year and the judge is-

Yeah

... calling that out like that.

That, that was like, oh, he's not credible.

That's ridiculous.